System and method for providing wireless security surveillance services accessible via a telecommunications device

ABSTRACT

A system and method for providing video surveillance may include providing digital television services to a customer via middleware. The middleware may include digital rights management services. Digital surveillance services may be provided to the customer via the middleware. In providing digital surveillance services to the customer, the customer may be enabled to access surveillance equipment via the middleware from a remote location using a telecommunications device, where the telecommunications device is authorized to access the surveillance equipment by the digital rights management services.

BACKGROUND

Telecommunications, television, and data services have significantlyadvanced in recent years. Most people have telecommunications devices(e.g., mobile telephones) and routinely carry the telecommunicationsdevices while away from their homes. Television services have alsoadvanced as many people have cable or satellite television in theirhomes.

The value of goods in people's homes has increased, at least in part,due to individuals owning expensive video and audio equipment. It is notuncommon for people to have several thousands of dollars of electronicsequipment in their homes these days.

To protect the valuable electronics equipment and other valuable goods(e.g., jewelry), that people own, people have and continue to protecttheir homes with security systems. One aspect of home security systemsis an alarm that sounds when an intruder triggers the security system bya sensor sensing an unauthorized opening of a door or window. Some homesecurity systems include motion sensors, as well. More advanced securitysystems include video surveillance. Video surveillance has been usedover the years by homeowners to locally record the outside and/or insideof the house. More recently, home video surveillance has been used tostream video over the Internet to allow the homeowner to view thepremises of his or her home. A problem that exists with the Internetvideo streaming solution is the ability for other people to access theunsecured streaming video. Various proprietary video surveillancesolutions are available for homeowners to remotely access home videosurveillance cameras, but these proprietary systems are limited due tobeing complicated to configure and due to being expensive because ofbeing customized and having low sales volume.

SUMMARY

To overcome the problems of home video surveillance being limited toproprietary solutions, being expensive, and being complicated, theprinciples of the present invention provide for a home videosurveillance system integrated with existing television delivery systems(e.g., Internet Protocol television (IPTV)) that provides for remoteaccess via a telecommunications device, such as a mobile telephone. Byintegrating video surveillance into existing television deliverysystems, communications service providers who currently delivertelevision, telephone, and Internet data services, generally known as a“triple play,” can add video surveillance services by incorporating thevideo surveillance services into existing middleware operating on anetwork, such as the Internet. By using a middleware solution, digitalrights management (DRM) may be used, thereby protecting videosurveillance data signals from unauthorized users. Furthermore, becausethe video surveillance services are provided by a communications serviceprovider that already delivers communications services (e.g., tripleplay communications services) to a home, the cost of adding the videosurveillance service is relatively low as compared to other solutions assales volume to existing and new customers can be relatively high.

One embodiment of a method for providing surveillance services to acustomer may include providing digital television services to thecustomer via middleware. In one embodiment, the middleware includesdigital rights management services. Digital surveillance services may beprovided to the customer via the middleware. In providing digitalsurveillance services to the customer, the customer may be enabled toaccess surveillance equipment via the middleware from a remote locationusing a telecommunications device. The telecommunications device may beauthorized to access the surveillance equipment by the digital rightsmanagement services. In authorizing the telecommunications device toaccess the surveillance equipment, a digital rights management keyassigned to the telecommunications device may be compared to a digitalrights management key assigned to television equipment, such as aset-top box, or surveillance equipment. Additionally or alternatively,authorization of the telecommunications device may be performed bycomparing a network address, telephone number, or other identifierassociated with the telecommunications device with information stored ina database, such as a provisioning database managed by a communicationsservice provider. In one embodiment, the customer may control thesurveillance equipment via the telecommunications device. The customermay be billed for the digital television service and digitalsurveillance services on a single bill.

One embodiment of a system for providing surveillance services mayinclude middleware in communications with a communications network. Themiddleware may be configured to provide communications services tocustomers of a communications service provider. A digital rightsmanagement server may be in communications with the middleware, wherethe digital rights management server may be configured to authorizeaccess to digital content. A set-top box may be configured tocommunicate with the middleware to provide digital television servicesto a customer of a communications service provider. Digital surveillanceequipment may be configured to communicate with said set-top box toprovide surveillance signals to the customer. A digital rightsmanagement database may in communication with the digital rightsmanagement server, where the digital rights management server may beconfigured to (i) receive an identifier of a telecommunications deviceof the customer, the telecommunications device being remotely locatedfrom premises of the customer at which the digital surveillanceequipment is located, and (ii) determine whether the telecommunicationsdevice has access rights to the surveillance signals. The middleware mayfurther be configured to communicate with the set-top box and thedigital rights management server and, if the telecommunications devicehas access rights to the surveillance signals as determined by thedigital rights management server, enable the telecommunications deviceto communicate with the set-top box.

Another method for providing video surveillance services may includereceiving a network address of digital television equipment of acustomer of a communications service provider. The network address ofthe digital television equipment may be validated. A private networkaddress may be communicated to the digital television equipment. Thenetwork address and private network address may be communicated to aprovisioning system of a communications service provider to beassociated with a customer record of the communications serviceprovider, where the communications service provider may provide at leastone communications service to the customer other than video surveillanceservices. A first digital rights management key may be communicated tothe television equipment. A second digital rights management key may becommunicated with the telecommunications device. The telecommunicationsdevice may be authenticated in response to a request to access a videosurveillance signal generated by video surveillance equipment incommunication with the digital television equipment. In response to thetelecommunications equipment being authenticated, the digital televisionequipment may be instructed to encode the video surveillance signalgenerated by the video surveillance equipment. A communications link maybe established between the telecommunications equipment and televisionequipment to enable the customer to view the encoded video surveillancesignal.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Illustrative embodiments of the present invention are described indetail below with reference to the attached drawing figures, which areincorporated by reference herein and wherein:

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an illustrative network environment for acommunications service provider to provide communications services toresidential and/or commercial customers;

FIG. 2A is an illustration of an illustrative network environmentillustrating communications for a customer to remotely accesssurveillance equipment via a telecommunications device;

FIGS. 2B and 2C are signal diagrams of an illustrative process forenabling a customer to access surveillance signals produced bysurveillance equipment from a telecommunications device;

FIG. 3 is an illustration of an illustrative telecommunications deviceshowing an image generated by surveillance equipment;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative telecommunications deviceconfigured to remotely access and control surveillance equipment;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of software modules configured to be executedin the telecommunications device of FIG. 4 and enable a user to access,view, and control surveillance equipment;

FIG. 6 is a depiction of an illustrative customer bill forcommunications services, including surveillance communications services,provided to a customer of a communications service provider;

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of an illustrative process for providing atelecommunications device remote access to surveillance signals fromsurveillance equipment; and

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of another illustrative process for providing atelecommunications device remote access to surveillance signals fromsurveillance equipment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

With regard to FIG. 1, a network environment 100 includes acommunications service provider 102 that provides a range ofcommunications services to customers 104 a-104 n (collectively 104) inresidential homes or businesses. The communications services provided bythe communications service provider 102 are generally subscriptionbased, and may include IPTV, high-speed data services, voice over IP(VoIP) telecommunications services, and surveillance services. Thecommunications services may be provided over a network 106, such as theInternet. In providing the various communications services, data packets108 may be utilized to communicate data with network addressedelectronics devices owned by the customers 104.

The communications service provider 102 may utilize one or morecomputing systems (not shown) that communicate with one or moredatabases 110 that are configured to store information about thecustomers 104. The database(s) 110 may be used for provisioning thecommunications services that are being provided to each of the customers104. In one embodiment, the database(s) 110 include digital rightsmanagement (DRM) that provides for a customer to access particulartelevision channels, for example, by checking with the digital rightsmanagement database prior to enabling a customer to access a particulartelevision channel. For example, a customer who pays for the Home BoxOffice (HBO®) television channel may access HBO® in response the DRMdatabase being checked to verify that the customer is a subscriber ofthe HBO® television network.

Customer 104 a owns a computer 112, telephone 114, television 116 thatis connected to a set-top box (STB) 118, and surveillance equipment 120.The surveillance equipment 120 may include a surveillance video cameraor any other surveillance equipment, as understood in the art. Thecomputer 112, telephone 114, and television 116 are each configured tocommunicate over the network 106 using data packets 108, as provided bythe communications service provider 102. In addition, the surveillanceequipment 120 is shown to be in communication with the set-top box 118.In one embodiment, the surveillance equipment 120 may be wired via a USBport, for example. Alternatively, a wireless connection between theset-top box 118 and surveillance equipment 120 may be made. The set-topbox 118 may also communicate surveillance signals (e.g., video or audio)with the surveillance equipment 120 using data packets 122 whether awired or wireless connection is utilized.

A customer or subscriber 124 may utilize a telecommunications device126, such as a mobile telephone, VoIP telephone, smart telephone, or anyother telecommunications device, configured to enable the customer 124to receive and display video. The telecommunications device 126 iswireless and configured to communicate data packets 108 via a wirelessaccess point 128, such as a mobile telephone communications tower, tocommunicate via the network 106. The network 106 may be formed of one ormore communications networks, including mobile communications networks,the Internet, private networks, or any other communications networks asunderstood in the art.

In operation, the customer 124 may utilize the telecommunications device126 to access video being produced from the surveillance equipment 120.To facilitate communications from the surveillance equipment 120, thecommunications service provider 102 may configure one or more computingsystems to facilitate receiving requests from the telecommunicationsdevice 126 to access the surveillance equipment 120. The communicationsservice provider may further configure the computer system(s) to limitany communications device other than the telecommunications device 126from accessing data being generated by the surveillance equipment 120,as further described herein.

With regard to FIG. 2A, a telecommunications service provider mayoperate one or more networks to enable subscribers to access and controlsurveillance equipment utilizing a telecommunications device. Thecommunications service provider 202 may provide a variety of“back-office” services, including accounting services, billing services,provisioning services, and so forth, to provide television,telecommunications, data, and surveillance services. The back-officeservices may be managed utilizing a provisioning system 203 that mayinclude a provisioning database (not shown) and execute software toperform provisioning and other management (e.g., billing) functionality.The communications service provider 202 may also operate a digitalrights management server 204 configured to manage DRM keys for IPTV,surveillance system services, or other services, to enable subscribersto access particular video content and surveillance equipment. Inaddition, the communications service provider 202 may manage amiddleware server 206 which may be configured to manage and providecustomers with television services, data services, telecommunicationsservices, and surveillance system services. Network access equipment 208a-208 n (collectively 208) may be configured to enable subscribers ofthe communications service provider 202 to interact with the middlewareserver 206, provisioning server (not shown), and DRM server 204, forexample, in performing communications using a television, computer,telephone, or surveillance equipment.

A customer of the communications service provider 202 may utilizetelevision equipment, including a set-top box 210, to access IPTV at hisor her home or office. The set-top box 210 is typically provisioned bythe communications service provider 202 prior to installation at thecustomer's home or office. In provisioning the set-top box 210, customerand set-top box information may be stored in a database to manage thecustomer's account and enable the communications service provider 202 tobill the customer, establish network address(es) for the customer, andmanage communications to the customer. The set-top box 210 may beutilized to enable surveillance equipment 212 to operate using serviceprovisioning by the communications service provider 202. Thesurveillance equipment 212 may include video surveillance equipment,audio surveillance equipment, or any other type of surveillanceequipment for the customer to monitor his or her property.

The customer of the communications service provider 202 may utilize atelecommunications device 214 to access and control the surveillanceequipment 212 via the middleware server 206, as further describedherein. The telecommunications device 214 may be serviced by thecommunications service provider 202 or a different communicationsservice provider, such as a mobile telephone service provider. In orderfor the telecommunications device 214 to receive video signals from thesurveillance equipment 212, the telecommunications device 214 is to havevideo capabilities. In other words, the telecommunications device 214 isconfigured to receive and play video on an electronic display for thecustomer to view.

To ensure security in distributing surveillance video from thesurveillance equipment 212 onto the Internet 216 or other publicnetworks, the principles of the present invention utilize digital rightsmanagement keys to restrict access to the surveillance video produced bythe surveillance equipment 212. To manage and distribute the DRM keys,the DRM server 204 may manage one or more DRM keys 218 that aredistributed to the set-top box 210 and telecommunications device 214, asshown by DRM keys 218 a and 218 b, respectively. In an alternativeembodiment, the DRM key 218 a may be distributed to the surveillanceequipment 212 if the surveillance equipment 212 is configured to performfunctionality of the set-top box 210 in terms of communicating with themiddleware server 206.

Two signaling paths between the set-top box 210 and/or surveillanceequipment 212 and telecommunications device 214 are shown. One signalingpath is a video media path 220 and the other is a video signaling path222. The video signaling path 222 operates to communicate controlinstructions to control media, including audio and video, beingcollected by the set-top box 210 from the surveillance equipment 212 anddistribution of the surveillance media or content to thetelecommunications device 214. The video media path 220 is a data pathfor which surveillance video or content is communicated from thesurveillance equipment 212 vis-à-vis the set-top box 210 and Internet216, among other networks, to the telecommunications device 214.

A digital rights management call flow 224 is shown as dashed lines. TheDRM call flow operates to request video surveillance DRM keys 218 andcommunicate the video surveillance DRM keys to the set-top box 210 andtelecommunications device 214. The DRM call flow 224 ultimately operatesto limit any devices other than the telecommunications device 214 toaccess surveillance video being generated by the surveillance equipment212 and communicated from the set-top box 210 to the Internet 216 or anyother public network.

With regard to FIGS. 2B and 2C, signaling communications between thevarious communications devices of FIG. 2A are shown. Three phases ofoperation are shown, including initialization 226, security set-up 228,and operations 230. As understood in the art, prior to a set-top boxbeing installed at a home of a customer, the communications serviceprovider performs provisioning of the set-top box so as to storeinformation associated with the set-top box 210, including MAC ID,equipment type, and any other information associated with the set-topbox 210 to store in a provisioning database. After provisioning, theinstalled set-top box may readily communicate with the service provideronce installed. The initialization process 226 may also include theservice provider establishing customer information at the serviceprovider provisioning system 203. The customer information may includeaddress information of the set-top box 210 and surveillance equipment212 that is to be installed at a residence or work environment of thecustomer. In establishing the customer information at step 232 by theservice provider, the customer may call the service provider or enterthe customer information into a website managed by the service providerprovisioning system 203. The service provider may manually orautomatically store the customer information in the service providerprovisioning system 203, where the customer information may includename, address, telephone number, equipment type, equipment address,demographic information, or any other information associated with thecustomer or equipment (e.g., set-top box 210 and surveillance equipment212) that is to be provided to the customer. At step 234, the serviceprovider may have a field team install the set-top box 210 at aresidence or work environment of the customer. In installing the set-topbox 210, the field team may connect the set-top box 210 to a televisionand to a network, such as the Internet, either via a wired or wirelessconnection.

At step 236, the surveillance equipment 212 may be connected to theset-top box 210 via a wired or wireless connection and a MAC ID addressmay be communicated from the surveillance equipment 212 to the set-topbox 210. The MAC ID address may be communicated from the set-top box 210to the IPTV middleware server 206 at step 238. It should be understoodthat other information associated with the set-top box 210 andsurveillance equipment 212 may be communicated to the middleware server206 at step 238 as well. At step 240, the MAC ID address may becommunicated from the middleware server 206 to the service providerprovisioning system 203. The service provider provisioning system 203validates the MAC ID at step 242, where the validation includesverifying that the MAC ID address communicated from the surveillanceequipment 212 matches the MAC ID address stored by the service providerprovisioning system 203 in association with customer information. Inresponse, if the MAC ID is validated in step 242, a validation indicatoris communicated from the service provider provisioning system 202 to themiddleware server 206 at step 244.

The middleware server 206, in response to receiving validation that theMAC ID of the surveillance equipment 212 matches the MAC ID that wasprovisioned for the customer and stored by the service providerprovisioning system 203, communicates a private IP address to thesurveillance equipment 212 at step 246. The private IP address is anaddress that limits other devices with the ability to access thesurveillance equipment 212. The private IP address may be the address10.20.10.1, for example. The middleware server 206 supports dynamic hostconfiguration protocol (DHCP) functionality because the middlewareserver 206 is a central signaling control point between thetelecommunications device 214 and surveillance equipment 212. In oneembodiment, the middleware server 206 maintains a pool of private IPaddresses for use with customers who subscribe to the surveillanceservice. Alternatively, private IP addresses could be provided by aserver distinct from the middleware server 206, especially if a largenumber of private IP addresses are to be managed.

In addition to communicating the private IP address to the surveillanceequipment 212, the private IP address and MAC ID of the surveillanceequipment 212 are communicated from the middleware server 206 to theservice provider provisioning system 202 at step 248. The serviceprovider provisioning system 202 stores the private IP address and MACID with the customer information. By storing the private IP address andMAC ID with the customer information, the surveillance equipment 212 isassociated with the customer name, address, telephone number of thecustomer's home telephone, telephone number of the telecommunicationsdevice 214, and customer chosen PIN number (e.g., 4-digit code) for usein providing the customer surveillance equipment service. Once the IPaddress and MAC ID is stored with the customer information, theinitialization process 226 is complete.

The security set-up process 228 is used to ensure security is maintainedfor the customer by limiting access to content or signals produced bythe surveillance equipment 212 from an unauthorized device on a publicnetwork. In providing security, the middleware server 206 maycommunicate a request to the DRM server 204 at step 252. At step 254,the DRM server 204 communicates a DRM key to the middleware server 206.The middleware server 206 passes the DRM key to the set-top box 210 atstep 256. At step 258, the set-top box 210 stores the DRM key. The DRMkey enables the middleware server 206 to communicate with the set-topbox 210 to activate a video encoding feature. In one embodiment, thevideo encoding feature uses H.264 sub-quarter common intermediate format(sub-QCIF) video formatting. The use of this particular video formattingstandard accommodates video resolution for standard wirelesstelecommunications devices that have 128×96 lines on the electronicdisplays. It should be understood that other video compression and lineresolution formatting may be used based on the configuration of thetelecommunications device that a user is using.

At step 260, the telecommunications device 214 may be utilized by thecustomer to communicate with the service provider provisioning system203 to communicate an address of the telecommunications device and PIN.In communicating the telecommunications device address and PIN, thetelecommunications device 214 may be utilized to the website that issupported by the service provider provisioning system 203. At step 262,the service provider provisioning system 203 validates the address ofthe telecommunications device and PIN by accessing a database thatstores the customer information. At step 264, a validation indicator iscommunicated by the service provider provisioning system 202 to themiddleware server 206. At step 266, the middleware server 206 requests awireless phone DRM key from the DRM server 204. The wireless phone DRMkey is communicated from the DRM server 204 to the telecommunicationsdevice 214 at step 268. At step 270, the telecommunications device 214stores the phone DRM key for use in accessing the surveillance servicesprovided by the communications service provider. At this point, thesecurity set-up process 228 is complete.

At step 272, the surveillance equipment 212 communicates surveillancesignals, such as video, to the set-top box 210. Although shown after thesecurity set-up process 228 is complete, the generation andcommunication of the surveillance video to the set-top box 210 from thesurveillance equipment 212 at step 272 may be performed at any time on acontinuous or non-continuous basis. At step 274, the customer using thetelecommunications device 214 may request from the surveillanceequipment 212 to be communicated to the telecommunications device 214.At step 276, the middleware server 206 that received the request forsurveillance video from the telecommunications device 214 may requestencoded surveillance video from the set-top box 210. At step 278, theset-top box 210 may encode the surveillance video being produced by thesurveillance equipment 212. In encoding the surveillance video 278, theset-top box may use the H.264 video encoding standard or any other videoencoding standard accepted and displayed on the telecommunicationsdevice 214.

At step 280, the telecommunications device 214 and set-top box mayexchange DRM keys in determining whether the telecommunications device214 has access rights to the surveillance video being generated by thesurveillance equipment. Additional verification of access rights may beperformed by establishing a private network communication between thetelecommunications device 214 and set-top box 210, verifying addressinformation of the telecommunications device 214, or otherwise. Theexchange of the DRM keys may be a one-time event or continuous eventevery 15, 30 or 60 seconds, for example. By exchanging the DRM keysbetween a telecommunications device 214 and set-top box 210, securitymay be maintained between the two devices throughout communications,thereby protecting any unauthorized devices from interceptingsurveillance video being communicated from the set-top box 210 to thetelecommunications device 214 at step 282. At step 284, thetelecommunications device 214 may decode and display the surveillancevideo. At step 286, the telecommunications device 214 may be used by thecustomer to control the surveillance equipment 212. In controlling thesurveillance equipment 212, the customer may reposition the surveillanceequipment, zoom using the surveillance equipment, increase sensitivityof the surveillance equipment, or perform any other function asunderstood in the art. The operation process 230 may continue as long asthe customer desires to interact with the surveillance equipment 212from the telecommunications device 214.

With regard to FIG. 3, a telecommunications device 300 with anelectronic display 302 may display a scene 304 captured by surveillanceequipment. The telecommunications device 300 may be any electronicdevice that may be wired or wirelessly in communication with a set-topbox and/or surveillance equipment. A number of soft-buttons 306 may beprovided to enable the customer to control the surveillance equipment towhich the telecommunications device 300 is in communication. Thesoft-buttons 306 may include a light soft-button 306(a), photographsoft-button 306(b), reposition soft-buttons 306(c), zoom soft-button306(d) and IR soft-button 306(e). The light soft-button 306(a) enablesthe customer to turn on a light at the surveillance equipment to lightup the scene 304 that is being captured by the surveillance equipment.The photograph soft-button 306(b) may be utilized by the customer totake a still photograph of the scene 304 being displayed. Therepositioning soft-button 306(c) may enable the customer to reposition acamera, for example, up, down, left, or right if the surveillanceequipment has such capabilities. The zoom soft-button 306(d) may enablea video camera to be zoomed in or out. The IR soft-button 306(e) enablesthe customer to switch the surveillance equipment from a visual image toan infrared image if the surveillance equipment is configured withdual-spectrum video mode. The telecommunications device 300 may includeDRM keys 308 that are respectively aligned with each of the soft-buttons306 to select the respective soft-buttons. It should be understood thatadditional or other functionality may be provided to enable the customerto control the surveillance equipment from the telecommunications device300.

With regard to FIG. 4, a telecommunications device 400 that may beutilized to perform the functions of the telecommunications describedherein. The telecommunications device 400 may include a processing unit402 that executes software 404. The processing unit 402 may be incommunication with memory 406, input/output (I/O) unit 408, and userinterface 410. In addition, the processing unit 402 may be incommunication with an electronic display 412. The software 404 may becomposed of one or more modules configured to manage one or more DRMkeys, decode encoded video signals, display the video capturedphotographs from the video signals, and perform other functionality inaccordance with the principals of the present invention. The memory 406may be configured to store executable software, data, such as videodata, and any other parameters for use in enabling the customer toaccess or communicate with surveillance equipment remotely and displaythe surveillance video received from the surveillance equipment. The I/Ounit 408 may be configured to communicate with a network, such as atelecommunications network and/or the Internet. The user interface 410may be any electromechanical element on the telecommunications device400, such as keys, thumb wheel, etc. The electronic display 412 may beconfigured to display surveillance video or any other graphical image,as understood in the art. In one embodiment, the electronic display 412is a touch screen that responds to touch interaction by a user forselecting elements (e.g., soft-buttons), altering an image (e.g., zoom),or controlling any other aspect of a video or image being displayed onthe electronic display.

With regard to FIG. 5, software 404, which may be a complete softwareapplication, may be configured as distinct software modules. Thesoftware 404 may come pre-loaded on the telecommunications device 400 ordownloaded via a network, as understood in the art. The software modulesmay include a manage DRM key module 502, display surveillance videomodule 504, and control surveillance video equipment module 506. Themanage DRM key module 502 may be configured to receive and store a DRMkey in addition to communicate the DRM key with a set-top box, forexample. The DRM key may be a telecommunications or phone DRM key thatis specifically assigned to the telecommunications device. The displaysurveillance video module 504 may be configured to receive, decode anddisplay surveillance video signal using H.264 sub-QCIF video encoding orany other video encoding, as understood in the art. The controlsurveillance video equipment module 506 may be configured to enable acustomer to remotely control surveillance equipment from thetelecommunications device using soft-buttons, hard-buttons, or touchscreen interaction with the telecommunications device, as understood inthe art. The software 404 may have additional and/or alternativesoftware modules that perform the same or analogous functionality, inaddition to providing alternative functionality, for use in enabling acustomer to remotely access, view, and control surveillance video and/oraudio signals from a telecommunications device via a network.

With regard to FIG. 6, an illustrative monthly bill 600 for billing acustomer of a communications service provider is shown. The bill 600 mayinclude customer information 602 for use in mailing the bill 600 to thecustomer. It should be understood that the bill 600 may be paper orelectronic, as understood in the art. Time period information 604 may beshown to indicate the time period over which the bill 600 covers for thecustomer receiving communications services. The communications services606 a-606 d (collectively 606) may be itemized for the customer. Asshown, the communications services 606 may include IPTV monthly fee 606a, high-speed Internet service 606 b, voice over Internet Protocol(VoIP) 606 c, and IP surveillance services 606 d. Additional or fewercommunications services may be listed. By including IP surveillanceservices 606 d on the bill 600 with the other communications services606 a-606 c, payment for IP surveillance services are simplified for thecustomer. Furthermore, because the IP surveillance services are providedas an additional service from the communications service provider, theIP surveillance services may be less expensive since the equipment isalready installed for the customer.

With regard to FIG. 7, a flow chart of an illustrative process 700 forproviding surveillance services is shown. The process 700 may includeproviding digital television services to a customer via middleware atstep 702. In one embodiment, the middleware includes digital rightsmanagement services. At step 704, digital surveillance services may beprovided to the customer via the middleware. In providing digitalsurveillance services to the customer, the customer may be enabled toaccess surveillance equipment via the middleware from a remote locationusing a telecommunications device at step 706. The telecommunicationsdevice may be authorized to access the surveillance equipment by thedigital rights management services. In authorizing thetelecommunications device to access the surveillance equipment, adigital rights management key assigned to the telecommunications devicemay be compared to a digital rights management key assigned totelevision equipment, such as a set-top box, or surveillance equipment.Additionally or alternatively, authorization of the telecommunicationsdevice may be performed by comparing a network address, telephonenumber, or other identifier associated with the telecommunicationsdevice with information stored in a database, such as a provisioningdatabase managed by a communications service provider. In oneembodiment, the customer may control the surveillance equipment via thetelecommunications device. The customer may be billed for the digitaltelevision service and digital surveillance services on a single bill.

With regard to FIG. 8, a flow chart of an illustrative process 800 forproviding video surveillance services is shown. The process 800 mayinclude receiving a network address of digital television equipment of acustomer of a communications service provider at step 802. In receivingthe network address, such as a MAC ID address, the communicationsservice provider may use the network address provided by a manufacturerand store the network address in a provisioning database. At step 804,the network address of the digital television equipment may bevalidated. In validating the network address, middleware may communicatewith the provisioning database to determine whether the digitaltelevision equipment has been provisioned by the communications serviceprovider. At step 806, a private network address may be communicated tothe digital television equipment. In one embodiment, the digitaltelevision equipment may communicate the private network address todigital surveillance equipment. The network address and private networkaddress may be communicated to a provisioning system of a communicationsservice provider to be associated with a customer record of thecommunications service provider at step 808, where the communicationsservice provider provides at least one communications service to thecustomer other than video surveillance services.

A first digital rights management key may be communicated to thetelevision equipment at step 810. At step 812, a second digital rightsmanagement key may be communicated with the telecommunications device.The telecommunications device may be authenticated in response to arequest to access a video surveillance signal generated by the videosurveillance equipment at step 814. In authenticating thetelecommunications device, a verification of at least one identifierassociated with the telecommunications device may be performed by adigital rights management system and/or a provisioning system managed bythe communications service provider. In response to thetelecommunications equipment being authenticated, the digital televisionequipment may be instructed to encode the video surveillance signalgenerated by the video surveillance equipment at step 816. In analternative embodiment, the encoding of the video surveillance signalmay be equivalently encoded by another device, such as the videosurveillance equipment itself or a server located on a network. At step818, a communications link between the telecommunications equipment andtelevision equipment may be established to enable the customer to viewthe encoded video surveillance signal.

The previous detailed description is of a small number of embodimentsfor implementing the invention and is not intended to be limiting inscope. One of skills in this art will immediately envisage the methodsand variations used to implement this invention in other areas thanthose described in detail. The following claims set forth a number ofthe embodiments of the invention disclosed with greater particularity.

1. A method for providing video surveillance services, said methodcomprising: receiving a network address of digital television equipmentof a customer of a communications service provider; validating thenetwork address of the digital television equipment; communicating aprivate network address to the digital television equipment;communicating the network address and private network address to aprovisioning system of a communications service provider to beassociated with a customer record of the communications serviceprovider, the communications service provider providing at least onecommunications service to the customer other than video surveillanceservices; communicating a first digital rights management key to thetelevision equipment; communicating a second digital rights managementkey with the telecommunications device; authenticating thetelecommunications device in response to a request to access a videosurveillance signal generated by video surveillance equipment incommunication with the digital television equipment; in response to thetelecommunications device being authenticated, instructing the digitaltelevision equipment to encode the video surveillance signal generatedby the video surveillance equipment; and establishing a communicationslink between the telecommunications device and the digital televisionequipment to enable the customer to view the encoded video surveillancesignal.
 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising billingthe customer for the digital television services and digitalsurveillance services on a single bill.
 3. The method according to claim1, further comprising establishing the telecommunications device of thecustomer as an authorized device to access the surveillance equipment ofthe customer.
 4. The method according to claim 1, further comprisingestablishing a communications link between digital television equipmentand the surveillance equipment of the customer, the surveillanceequipment communicating surveillance signals via the digital televisionequipment to the telecommunications device of the customer.
 5. Themethod according to claim 1, further comprising: providing high-speeddata communications services to the customer; and providingtelecommunications services to the customer, wherein each of theservices are provided via the middleware.
 6. The method according toclaim 1, wherein said video surveillance equipment includes a videocamera.
 7. The method according to claim 1, further comprisingdetermining whether said digital television equipment has access rightsto particular television channels.
 8. The method according to claim 1,wherein receiving the network address includes receiving a MAC address.9. The method according to claim 1, wherein receiving the networkaddress of the digital television equipment includes receiving thenetwork address from a set-top box.
 10. The method according to claim 1,wherein instructing the digital television equipment to encode the videosurveillance signal includes instructing the digital televisionequipment to encode the video surveillance signal to a format compatiblewith the telecommunications device.
 11. The method according to claim 1,further comprising: receiving a personal identification number (PIN)from the telecommunications device; authenticating the PIN; enabling thetelecommunications device to access the encoded video surveillancesignal.
 12. The method according to claim 1, wherein authenticating thetelecommunications device includes exchanging the first and seconddigital management rights management keys between the telecommunicationsdevice and the digital television equipment.
 13. The method according toclaim 1, further comprising enabling the customer to control the videosurveillance equipment.
 14. The method according to claim 13, whereinenabling the customer to control the surveillance equipment comprisesenabling the customer to control the surveillance equipment via thetelecommunications device.
 15. The method according to claim 1, furthercomprising establishing secure communications between thetelecommunications device and the television equipment.